i need to get a new laptop because my old one recently decided to go into retirement. Im thinking about getting a Samsung rv 520. I wasnt able to find any reviews on this one by linux (preferably ubuntu)users. Then i stumbled upon this forum.Does anyone here use that laptop with linux? What is working and what isnt working? Im especially interested in the nvidia card as it is an optimus card. How does that affect everydays work? Thank you very very much for any answer!

thanks for reminiding for this topic. I have bought this RV520 since 3 months. Ubuntu 11.04 is running with that well, but the backlight will be stay unsatisfactory. Maybe, I'm not a "professional" - the backlight won't be adjustable. So with AC power the backlight will be stay at 100% and at battery power the backlight stay at 20%. The FN-Keys up and down don't work. If I go to standby at AC power, the backlight falls after resume to 20% and no trick will get back to 100%, only you reboot. I might, that the problem is the nvidia driver. My E252 with Intel graphics is full functionally (10.4 LTE).

Hi everyone. I simply registered because there is very little info on the RV520. I just bought it and have tried several boot disks (Ubuntu Live CD, openSUSE KDE4 Live CD, openSUSE Net install DVD and openSUSE regular install DVD). None of them will boot. The Ubuntu ones first give me a minor textual error (error: "prefix" is not set.), then a grub menu with the option to check ubuntu without installing, an option to install ubuntu and an option to check the disk for errors. None of those work, I just get a blank screen.

Last one takes a little bit and then then nothing happens. I've never experienced this before. Anyone with a hint?

one bit of extra info. With the initrd thing, I tried pressing enter a couple of times while it was loading those things and something interesting came up. No idea if it's because of the enter or simply that now I saw output I didn't see before:

initrd.c(line 99):read image(initrd) failed: 1

I noticed in the bios that the full 4 gigs of memory is installed in the second slot. Can that have anything to do without? It'd be extremely weird.

UPDATE: Looks like UEFI was the problem. This prevents other OS's from bing booted (and installed then I reckon). I turned that option off in the BIOS and now an openSUSE KDE4 Live CD is booting.

sorry for answering late, i have been on vacation.To boot the live cd i needed tpo press "e" when the cd bootloader was shown. i then entered between "nosplash" and "--" the option "noefi" and booted with f10. works like a charme!I also noticed that it is possible to change the luminosity with "fn+up/down" within the live-cd, boot not when the system is installed. does anybody have any ideas on how to transfer that ability to the installed system?

/edit: ah, sry, i didnt see what you added. a question: how did you turn uefi off in BIOS and do you use a dualboot system? im havin trouble getting grub up and running. windows starts directly and no grub is shown.

thank you for your help, but unfortunately this tutorial doesnt work in ubuntu. even though all steps run flawlessly they dont show the wished for effect.the only effect i see is that after adding the acpi_backlight=vendor to grub, the luminousity-indicator doesnt show any mopre when using the fn keys. seems like i have to look for another solution :/

My laptop is Samsung RV520 with nVidia GeForce 520M. I have installed openSUSE 12.1 also I have tried Linux Mint, but I have not figured out to get the fn-keys to control the screen brightness or to get the system suspend working.

Got ubuntu 11.10 on this laptop.Only thing I've found to be a right pain is the brightness, so I thought I'd share the script I am using. This is on a pretty much default 11.10 install, would probably worth with others.

The script will set your screen to default brightness of 20%, which you can change by clicking on the brightness icon in the top toolbar (that will appear when you run the script) and changing. It forces the brightness back to this level every 5s in case you (like me) often press keys that reset it.

Set it up to start on login by clicking on icon in top right corner of screen to get menu, choose Startup Applications..., then click Add button, type a name, browse to find this script, save, logout, login.

Decide what you like as a default (I like 20) and edit the 20 in the script to your favourite.

Hope this helps someone, it was cobbled together from multiple sites/posts from the net.

Do your RV520 have also the Nvidia-Card? My Nvidia will turn down the backlight, but not turn up again. Try this and please report wat happend. Actually xubuntu 12.10 is running on my RV520 with latest updates.